DIGITAL PROXY SIMULATION FOR ROBOTIC HARDWARE

Robotics makers and application engineers stand to benefit from replacing physical simulation with a digital simulation that can easily represent any number of robots on a terrain and provide ground truth data for comparison with sensor data during analysis. In this research, a digital proxy simulation (DPS) was developed to dynamically simulate any number of articulated robots in real-time using sophisticated robot-environment interaction models. 3D models of the robot and environment objects can be imported or placed conveniently. Parameters of the models can be fine-tuned to mimic the environment with high fidelity. Sensor simulation and control capabilities of the DPS are also highlighted. Common sensors can be simulated including lidar, image sensors, and stereo cameras. Control plugins can be added easily to accomplish complex tasks.